Drake’s Take: New Releases 10.20.09

The week Drake gets freaky with the latest from Flight of the Conchords and Atlas Sound. -ed.

Drake’s Take: New Releases 10.20.09

Like last week, those who’d already made their top albums list for the year (or decade, eh, P4k?) are out of luck, as another couple releases can slide right in. First one being Logos from Atlas Sound (Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox) and another being the latest from the UK duo F*ck Buttons. Other new releases of note come from Flight of the Conchords, Russian Circle, Spiral Stairs, El Perro Del Mar, Alec Ounsworth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), Maps and soundtracks from Sufjan Stevens (from a musical production), Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard, and the much anticipated New Moon soundtrack.

In his first release as Atlas Sound, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, Deerhunter‘s Bradford Cox sounded like we’d interrupted a private moment in his bedroom. With this second release, Cox has taken us out of the bedroom and into… the living room, I guess. Regardless, it’s a great album of found sounds and pop wonders wrapped head-to-toe in guaze, like a pop rock mummy. The standout track is the collaboration with Animal Collective‘s Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, “Walkabout,” which samples the Dovers’ “What Am I Going to Do”. Elsewhere, when Cox buries his vocals, it feels like Deerhunter’s more shoe-gaze-y moments, but somehow more artful in it’s presentation. With an album like Logos, it’s going to be hard for Cox us to convince us that Atlas Sound is a side project anymore.

While the first season of Flight of the Conchords was a cultural breakout* as far as comedies go, it was the second season where those kiwis Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement figured out how to better marry the songs and the story lines on the screen. As such, this second album is more of a soundtrack than the first, leaning more on your remembering the visuals and story context than the first.

*I say cultural breakout in that while viewer numbers wasn’t great for even pay cable standards, the few that saw it talked about it endlessly.

In that spirit, to celebrate the release of I Told You I Was Freaky (or, the practical title not chosen, Flight of the Conchords: Music from the Second Season of the Television Series) here’s a track by track breakdown of each song on the album (with videos after the jump). If anything, it reminds of how hungry we are for them to get back in a room with co-creator James Bobin and crank out a third season.

1. “I Got Hurt Feelings” / Purchase mp3
From episode 2.03 (“The Tough Brets”)
The obligatory return of Hiphopopotamus and Rhymenoceros has some fun with the tradition of rappers’ dissing each other, turning it on it’s ear with a “Sticks and Stones” sentimentality.

2. “Sugalumps” / Download: “Sugalumps” [mp3]
From episode 2.02 (“A New Cup”)
Probably the funniest episode of the season is a domino of tragedy – Bret buying a used cup for $2.79 leads to Jemaine turning to prostitution. Oh, and two great songs, this one and “You Don’t Have to be a Prostitute” (#10). Obvious parody of the unfortunate “My Humps.” (See Drake’s post on song and episode from January.)

3. “We’re Both in Love With a Sexy Lady”
From episode 2.06 (“Love Is a Weapon of Choice”)
Brett & Jemaine both fall for the same lazy-eyed dog owner (Kristen Wiig). Great parody of R. Kelly.

5. “Demon Woman”
From episode 2.07 (“Prime Minister”)
Mary Lynn Rajskub plays the psychotic Karen, inspiration for the song. Cliff Richard was (and still is) a huge star in the UK and his song “Devil Woman” seems an obvious reference here, even if obscure to us Yanks.

8. “Petrov, Yelyena and Me”
From episode 2.10 (“Evicted”)
Of all the songs on the album, this one feels the most shoe-horned into the storyline, much like “Bowie Song” from season one. And like that song, it gets a fantastical video, making it worth the ‘stretch.’

11. “Friends”
From episode 2.04 (“Murray Takes It to the Next Level”)
Jim Gaffigan guests in the episode and music segment as Murray’s friend Jim.

12. “Carol Brown”
From episode 2.05 (“Unnatural Love”) / See Drake’s post from February
Easily the best FOTC penned song from either season, this one is reminiscent of the band The Sleepy Jackson, a band from Australia, which works nicely with the context of Jemaine accidentally sleeping with an Australian and dealing with the consequences.